Rejected And Reborn As The Alpha King's Luna

Chapter 8: The Truth About Xavier

POV: Thelma

My head felt like someone had split it open with an axe. The pounding in my skull was so intense that it took several minutes before I could even think about opening my eyes. When I finally did, I immediately wished I hadn't.

I was in a room I'd never seen before. The stone walls were rough and old, lit by flickering candles that cast dancing shadows everywhere. It smelled like earth and dampness, like we were underground somewhere. But what made my heart start racing wasn't the unfamiliar surroundings. It was the chains.

Heavy metal shackles circled my wrists and ankles, connected to the wall by thick chains that gave me maybe three feet of movement in any direction. I was on a bed, still wearing the white dress from the Luna ceremony, but I was completely trapped.

"No, no, no," I whispered, pulling frantically at the restraints. The metal bit into my skin as I struggled, but they didn't budge even slightly.

"You're awake."

I spun toward the voice and saw Xavier sitting in a chair across the room. His dark hair was messy, like he'd been running his hands through it, and his clothes were wrinkled. He looked tired, but his eyes were alert and watching me carefully.

"Let me go!" I demanded, yanking at the chains again. "Let me go right now!"

He didn't move. "I can't do that yet."

"What do you mean you can't?" My voice was getting higher, more panicked. "Xavier, what is this? Why am I chained up like some kind of prisoner?"

"Because if I let you go right now, you'll run straight back to them," he said calmly. "And they'll kill you."

I stared at him in disbelief. This was Xavier, the man I'd thought was my mate. The man who'd kissed me just yesterday, who'd made me feel things I'd never felt before. And now he had me chained up in some underground room like a captive.

"They tried to poison me, not kidnap me," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "You're the one who kidn*pped me. You're the one with me chained up!"

"The poison was just the beginning," Xavier said, leaning forward in his chair. "Thelma, listen to me. I know this looks bad, but I'm trying to save your life."

"By keeping me prisoner?"

"By keeping you safe until you understand what's really happening."

I pulled at the chains again, feeling tears of frustration start to burn behind my eyes. "I understand perfectly. I rejected Neon and embarrassed my family in front of the whole pack. So they poisoned me, just like they did in my previous life. But at least then I died quickly. Now you've got me locked up like an animal!"

Xavier's eyes widened slightly. "Your previous life?"

I froze. I hadn't meant to say that. In my panic and confusion, I'd let slip the one secret I couldn't afford to share with anyone.

"I... I don't know what I meant," I said quickly. "The poison must still be affecting me. I'm not thinking clearly."

But Xavier was studying my face intently now, like he was seeing me for the first time. "You remember dying, don't you? You remember them killing you before."

My mouth fell open. How could he possibly know that?

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied, but my voice was shaking.

Xavier stood up and moved closer to the bed, though he stayed just out of reach. "Thelma, I've been watching over you for three years. I know things about you that you don't even know about yourself."

"Watching over me?" The words came out as barely a whisper. "What do you mean watching over me?"

He ran his hands through his dark hair, looking like he was struggling with how much to tell me. "I mean I've been in this pack for three years, pretending to be just another member, waiting for the right moment to get close to you."

"Pretending?" My heart was beating so fast I thought it might burst. "Xavier, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying I'm not from the Tee pack," he said quietly. "I'm from the Silver Moon pack. I was sent here to infiltrate this pack and gather information about what they did to your real parents."

The world seemed to tilt sideways. Everything I thought I knew was crumbling around me. "You're a spy?"

"I'm your mate," he said firmly. "That's the most important thing. But yes, I was sent here on a mission. And that mission was to find out the truth about Marcus and Elena's crimes."

Marcus and Elena. My adoptive parents. The people who'd raised me, who I'd called mother and father for twenty-three years.

"What crimes?" I whispered, though part of me already knew the answer.

Xavier walked over to a wooden chest in the corner of the room and pulled out a thick folder. "The murder of Alpha James and Luna Catherine of the Silver Moon pack. Your real parents."

He said it so matter-of-factly, like he was talking about the weather. But those words hit me like a physical blow. I'd known I was adopted, I'd overheard that much before I died in my previous life. But murder?

"That's impossible," I said, shaking my head. "My adoptive father told me my parents died in a car accident when I was a baby."

"He lied." Xavier opened the folder and pulled out a photograph. "This is your real father, Alpha James."

He held up the picture, and I felt my breath catch in my throat. The man in the photo had my eyes. The same unusual green color, the same shape. He was tall and powerful-looking, with dark hair and a kind smile.

"And this," Xavier said, pulling out another photo, "is your mother, Luna Catherine."

The woman in the second picture made my heart skip a beat. She looked exactly like me. The same face shape, the same nose, even the same way of smiling. It was like looking at an older version of myself.

"Where did you get these?" I asked, my voice barely audible.

"From the Silver Moon pack's archives. Your parents were our leaders, Thelma. They were the most powerful Alpha and Luna in the region."

I stared at the photographs, trying to process what he was telling me. These people, these strangers, were my real parents? The people who'd raised me had murdered them?

"But why?" I asked. "Why would Marcus and Elena kill them?"

Xavier sat back down, the folder still in his hands. "Power. Your father's pack controlled territory that Marcus wanted. And your mother... your mother had special abilities that Marcus coveted."

"What kind of abilities?"

"The same abilities you have," he said quietly. "The ability to access the pack's core energy. To channel it and use it to strengthen an entire pack."

I remembered overhearing my adoptive parents talking about my blood, about how it could open the pack's core. They'd planned to use me and then dispose of me once I'd served my purpose.

"They killed my parents for that?" I asked, tears starting to flow down my cheeks.

"They killed your parents and took you when you were just six months old," Xavier confirmed. "They raised you as their own daughter, but only because they needed your abilities to make their pack stronger."

The chains suddenly felt heavier around my wrists. Everything made sense now. Why they'd never really loved me. Why Yvonne had always been the favorite. Why they'd been so determined to marry me off to Neon and make me Luna.

They'd never seen me as a daughter. I'd always been just a tool to them.

"The chains," I said suddenly, looking up at Xavier. "You put these on me because you thought I'd run back to them?"

He nodded. "When you wake up from that kind of poison, you're confused and disoriented. I couldn't risk you going back before you understood the truth. They've tried to kill you twice now, Thelma. They won't hesitate to try again."

"Twice?"

"The first time was in your previous life," he said gently. "You mentioned remembering dying. That wasn't a hallucination or a dream. Somehow, you were given a second chance."

I stared at him in amazement. "You believe me? About living this before?"

"I've seen stranger things," he said with a small smile. "And it explains why you acted so differently at the ceremony. The Thelma I'd been watching for three years would never have had the courage to reject Neon in front of the entire pack."

"You really have been watching me for three years?"

Xavier nodded. "From the moment I arrived in this pack, I knew you were my mate. Your scent, the way my wolf reacted to you... it was impossible to ignore. But I had a mission to complete. I had to gather evidence of what Marcus and Elena had done."

He opened the folder again and pulled out more documents. "Witness statements from pack members who saw them the night your parents died. Financial records showing how they benefited from your parents' deaths. Medical reports about the poison they used."

My hands were shaking as I looked at the papers he was showing me. It was all there in black and white. Proof that the people who'd raised me were murderers.

"Why didn't the Silver Moon pack come for me sooner?" I asked. "Why wait twenty-three years?"

"Because we didn't know you existed," Xavier said sadly. "Marcus and Elena told everyone you died with your parents. It was only three years ago that we got a tip from someone inside this pack that there was a young woman here with unusual abilities. Someone who looked exactly like Luna Catherine."

"Who gave you the tip?"

"Someone who felt guilty about staying silent for so long," he said. "Someone who knew the truth but was too afraid to speak up until recently."

I was quiet for several minutes, trying to absorb everything he'd told me. My entire life had been a lie. The people I'd called parents were murderers. The sister I'd loved despite everything was complicit in keeping me captive and using me.

And Xavier... Xavier was my mate, but he was also a spy who'd been watching me for years without me knowing.

"So what happens now?" I asked finally.

"Now you have a choice," Xavier said, standing up. "I can take these chains off and you can decide what you want to do with this information. You can come with me back to the Silver Moon pack, where you'll be safe and you can learn about your real heritage. Or you can try to go back to the Tee pack and confront Marcus and Elena with what you know."

"And if I choose to go back?"

"Then I'll go with you," he said without hesitation. "But I can't promise we'll survive it."

I looked down at the photographs of my real parents again. They looked happy in the pictures. Powerful and confident and completely in love. They'd been leaders, protectors of their pack.

"Xavier," I said slowly, "if my real parents were the leaders of the Silver Moon pack, what does that make me?"

He was quiet for a long moment, and when he spoke, his voice was

filled with something that sounded like awe.

"It makes you the rightful Alpha heir of the most powerful pack in the region," he said. "It makes you not just a Luna, Thelma. It makes you an Alpha in your own right."